1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices and methods for cleaning pipes and other voids, and more specifically, the present invention is directed to robots and other mobile platforms that have sensors capable of determining characteristics of sediment and other debris within such voids and that implement cleaning plans that can be incrementally updated based upon the determined characteristics.
2. Description of the Background
As sewer systems and other pipe networks age, the risk of deterioration, blockages, and collapses becomes an ever-increasing concern. As a result, municipalities worldwide are taking proactive measures to improve performance of their sewer systems. Cleaning and inspecting sewer lines is essential to maintaining a properly functioning system; these activities further a community's reinvestment into its wastewater infrastructure.
Inspection programs are required to determine current sewer conditions and to aid in planning a maintenance strategy. Most sewer lines are inspected using one or more of the following techniques: closed-circuit television (CCTV), cameras, visual inspection, or lamping inspection.
To maintain its proper function, a sewer system needs a regular cleaning schedule. There are several traditional cleaning techniques used to clear blockages and to act as preventative maintenance tools. These techniques include mechanical, hydraulic, and chemical methods. For example, sediment and other debris can be removed from sewer systems by disturbing sediment with these methods so that sediment is transported with the sewer flow to an egress point. Additionally, debris can be physically removed from intermediate locations using devices such as bucket machines, silt traps, grease traps, or sand/oil traps.
However, each of these standard cleaning methods has the potential to damage pipes during cleaning operations. One example of damage caused by cleaning operations is from the use of steel cables in bucket cleaning systems. Moving the cleaning head back and forth during dredging operations causes the cable to “saw” into the pipe at hard angles and bends. Additionally, the repeated act of dragging the bucket through the pipe during the material transfer process can damage the pipe. Over time, cleaning damage of this type may accumulate and become a significant factor in the failure of pipe sections that require frequent cleaning. This situation is further exacerbated in that many of the cleaning methods are blind, i.e., they do not include sensing activities in the planning or execution of the cleaning operations.
Thus, traditional methods of cleaning pipes and pipe systems inefficiently clean and unnecessarily damage pipes. By integrating sensing across the spectrum of cleaning operations, the present invention more efficiently moves material while simultaneously minimizing damage to pipes. Moreover, the present devices and cleaning methodologies could be expanded to a wide variety of voids other than subterranean pipeline networks. For example, the present devices and cleaning methodologies could be used with pipes, caves, tunnels, tanks, pipelines, conduits, trenches, subterranean voids, or wells.